Art Massolo, Chairman

With over 15 years in the international beverage industry experience, Big Hug Corp’s Art Massolo has developed an extraordinary and well-respected network of beverage producing partners, retail purchasers and buying partners, distributors and importers. His accomplishments speak to his expertise in business development and global enterprise:

• Led restructuring of The Wine Group’s International business, which in 2 years went from being 7% of the company’s revenue to 21%
• Launched the Franzia wine brand in China in 2004. In 2005, Franzia was the number one imported wine in China
• Built from concept through implementation the Origin Brand for the Thresher Group in Great Britain. In its first year of sales, Origin was one of the top 10 wine brands in the UK.
• Developed the world’s first computer-based business-to-business wine site, b2bwine.com.
• Created and managed the Cono Sur brand in Chile and developed it into the largest selling Chilean wine in the United Kingdom. Cono Sur is now the 3rd largest exporter of wine in Chile.

Nicolas Ardito Barletta, President & CEO

With 22 years experience in Banking, Investment Banking, management consulting and as CEO of 3 market-leading Media, Telecom and Broadband companies in Panama in the last 12 years with a combined total of over 1,000 employees, Nico brings Strategic, Financial and Managerial expertise as well as a wide range of regional contacts.

• During the last three years Nico has been CEO of Corp. Medcom, Panama’s largest TV and Radio Broadcasting Company with 350 employees.
• From 2000 to 2004, Nico was CEO of Panamas only MSO (Cable TV and Broadband company) with over 500 employees.
• Between 1994 and 1999 Nico co-founded and developed Latinet Corp., a corporate data telecom company in Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Miami. Before selling the company in 2002, Nico grew annual revenues to $40M.
• Between 1985 and 1993, Nico was marketing manager and head of investment banking for a mid-size bank in Panamas Banking Center and carried out 4 years of independent management consulting in Marketing and Finance for many of Panamas largest companies.
• Nico is an Industrial Engineer from Cornell University and has an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.

John Walters, COO

With over 12 years of Packaging and Business management experience within the wine industry of Australia, John Walters has developed and fine tuned his skills to build strong operational performance outcomes for some of the world’s leading wine companies with great success.

• As Packaging Manager for Constellation Wines for 7 years, John managed 2 bottling sites during Australia’s rapid growth expansion in wine.
• Mr. Walters co-developed the blue print for a new state of the art bottling facility and 2 new lines for Constellation Wines.
• As Packaging manager for Fosters Wine Australia, Mr. Walters oversaw the new site development and running of 3 high speed packaging lines.
• As Plant Manager, then General Manager of contract bottling facility, Ozpak for 4 years, Mr. Walters built this business into the second largest contract wine company in Australia. Ozpak's customers portfolio included Gallo, Constellation Wines and Mildara Blass.
• For Constellation, Fosters and Ozpak, Mr. Walters successfully implemented and maintained the first BRC qualification (Constellation Wines) and currently the highest BRC qualification (Ozpak) for the WIne packaging industry within Australia.

Claudio Fernandez, VP Sales, Latin America

Mr. Fernandez has developed his career as an experienced Commercial Sales Director and Export Manager for some of Chile’s most successful food and beverage producers.

• As the Commercial Sales Director of the Lago Villarrica Salmon, Mr. Fernandez developed their export market throughout Asia, North America, South America, Cuba and Mexico. Sales reached 5 million US$ within the first 2 years of developing the markets.
• As the Export Sales Director of Carozzi SA, Chiles largest producer of pasta, cakes and chocolates, Mr. Fernandez managed 55% of the Export revenue which reached 20 million US$.
• Mr. Fernandez managed Latin America and Asia for Concha y Toro Winery, Chile’s largest winery. Mr. Fernandez built this business into a 12 million US$ a year business.

Khaw Kean Chew, MD Business Development Asia

KC is the Managing Director Big Hug Corporation Asia. While working for E&J Gallo Winery for 16 years, Mr. Khaw has a proven track record of success in opening up 15 markets in Asia including, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Indo-China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Guam and Pacific Islands, India and Africa. He set up the distribution network for Gallo, the world’s 2nd largest winery in the region, and Gallo quickly became the number one selling wine in each country they entered.

Sam Ho Wing Fat, VP Sales Asia

Before joining BHC, Sam worked as General Manager in Four Seas Mercantile Ltd. in Hong Kong, covering Southern china for 16 years. He is very well versed with the China market because of his various positions held throughout the country.
Sam lives in China and speaks fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka and Sichuan which is a very important asset as the Chinese people tend to identify with their own clans and dialect.

Raquel Ardito Barletta, Brand Manager

Before joining BHC, Raquel worked as Marketing Manager in one of Panama’s largest distribution companies, responsible for the achievement of objectives, strategies and annual sales budgets of over 23 brands in the food/beverage and health categories.

Prior to this experience Raquel managed and owned a graphic design and website development company for over nine years, increasing profits 400% during its first two years of operation.